Annual Church Picnic

August 2, 1998 - LESSON: Ephesians 2:17-22, NRSV

SERMON TITLE: Infrastructure

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. How's your infrastructure?
    1. What?
      1. Foundation
        1. Sagging a bit
      2. Substructure
        1. A little shaky
      3. Underpinning
        1. Legs not as strong as they used to be.
  2. Infrastructure is the way the whole world is organized.
    1. Look around you, what do you see?
      1. Houses
      2. Trees
      3. Grass
      4. Water
      5. Sewer
      6. Roads
      7. People
      8. Birds
      9. Critters
      10. Insects
      11. They all fit together in a pattern that creates and supports and sustains life.
      12. We can't live without them.
        1. We'll we could live without them.
        2. It would be a very different kind of life.

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  3. Teddy Bears are also part of our infrastructure.
    1. Story of five year old and teddy bear.
      1. Mom washed it.
      2. It didn't turn out like she had hoped.
      3. Put it in a closet.
      4. Boy still wanted it.
      5. Some time later threw it away.
      6. Boy never forgot his teddy bear.
    2. Something to fill the gaps of life.
    3. Something to talk to and on occasion even to listen to.
    4. Something to love, even if it cannot love in return.
  4. There is another kind of infrastructure that is vital to the life of the Christian.
    1. Meeting with pastor of Non-instrumental Church of Christ.
      1. They did not use any musical instruments in worship.
      2. His infrastructure was incomplete
      3. His Bible began with the book of Acts.
        1. Everything before was under the Old Covenant.
        2. It could not used for doctrine.

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    2. Greeting Pastor Emeritus of FCC Beloit, Stanley Crosland
      1. I had preached a sermon based on a passage from the Gospel of John.
      2. He remarked that it was an excellent sermon.
      3. Too bad it was not based on a biblical passage.
      4. His Bible did not include John, or James, or Hebrews, or Revelation.
      5. His infrastructure was incomplete.
  5. The Christian's infrastructure is based on a sure foundation.
    1. The foundation is the prophets and apostles.
      1. What they did
      2. What they had to tell us.
    2. Jesus is the chief cornerstone.
      1. The quoin which held the walls together.
        1. The indispensabile and fundamental basis of something.
        2. The something in this case is life.
      2. The Christian life.
  6. One of my favorite stories is the Story of the Three Little Pigs.
    1. They each built a home.
    2. Each one's work was tested by the wily wolf.
      1. He huffed and he puffed and he blew two houses in.
      2. Two of the pigs didn't make it.

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    3. The last survived because of the building materials that were used.
  7. We do not have to face a real wolf
    1. There are a lot of wolves about.
    2. Our lives will be tested.
      1. If we have a sure foundation all will be well.
      2. What better foundation than the prophets and apostles, with Jesus being the chief cornerstone?

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